F on transcript, will gap year help?

Applying to College
1

hey guys, i’m in need of some help. i apologize since this is a lengthy post, but i’m really lost and not sure what to do.

i’m a senior and i’m finishing up college apps. the semester ended, and i was informed that i got an F in AP Calculus. i’ve never gotten an F before and i’m not sure how much this will affect my college admission chances.

for the past 3 years i’ve been a relatively successful student. i go to one of the top high schools in CA, and was selected to be in their competitive tech program. most of my classes were Honors/AP/IB, and i got a good mix of A’s and B’s, with the exception of one C in sophomore year. i did an internship at a an app development company, and volunteered every week through charities and clubs. i was involved with martial arts, but only for a few years.

this year, i had major health problems and was absent from school quite a bit. as a result, i couldn’t keep up with calculus, but i didn’t want to drop the course. i ran out of time to complete the work, so my C dropped to an F because of a bunch of incomplete assignments. i’m talking to teachers to ask them to extend the deadline, so my F may go back to a C. of course, there are no guarantees. to be clear, this wasn’t a matter of not understanding material or not being smart enough to take calculus, it was just too many absences and too much make up work. i know i can’t do anything now and this doesn’t really make a difference, but i could have easily gotten a B if i did not have these health issues.

my goal school is UCSD, and i want to major in psychology. i wrote about my health problems in the UC apps. i’m fine with going out of state, but i really don’t want to go to community college. would a gap year help? i was offered an internship at Dell, and i think i could do it over my free year. it’s not really connected to my major but i think it would look impressive and i could probably do some other psychology related thing and maybe take a trip somewhere and talk about “finding myself” or whatever. would this gap year increase my chances of showing colleges that i’m working to overcome the health obstacle? or should i just go straight to college? if i do, what are some colleges that would understand my circumstances? the colleges on my list have been places like USC, NYU, ASU, UNC, CMC, Pitzer, Pepperdine, BU and BC. are these out of reach now or would they look at my past 3 years and understand?

any help would be appreciated as this is a very tough and unexpected experience for me. i’m not sure what to do but i still want to go to a good college. please help! thank you

2

Is your health issue something that would resolve over the next year? If so, definitely do the Dell internship and use the gap year to regroup, heal, and polish your apps. You will be coming from a better place next year and colleges won’t have to figure out if you’re healthy enough to be at college.

If the health issue won’t resolve over the next year, it’s a tougher decision. You’re already making colleges aware of the risk that you might not be well enough to be at college by writing about your health issue. Now, your current experience is suggesting their concerns about you not being healthy enough to attend might be true - you can’t pass your current class. The single bad grade by itself wouldn’t necessarily be the big problem, it’s what it signals - you are not well enough to do well at college - that’s the problem.

3

@milee30 i understand! i think it will be fixed within a year. thank you so much :slight_smile:

4

If you fail a senior course, you are at risk of being denied admission to any UC. You need to contact your UC schools and let them know.

You need to figure out how you will make up that course as quickly as possible. Once you leave high school, with that F on your transcript, it’s permanent, you won’t be able to make any changes to your HS transcript. You have to make it up before you leave the HS.

A gap year won’t change your HS grade. Many of those schools won’t admit you with an F on your transcript because, why should they? There are so many students, with health issues, who won’t have F grades.

Schools will not overlook nor bypass your grades because you have an internship or because you think you can bluff your way out by taking a trip somewhere! In college admissions, GPA and SAT/ACT are kings.

Most people use a gap year to work and save money to pay for their colleges.

5

@“aunt bea” yeah i see your point… so what do you recommend i do, other than try to bring the F to a C? also, i wasn’t going to use the trip to get out of it, i genuinely think it could go into improving my health, but i’m not sure if colleges would understand that. i’d still be working on my year off, i know it’s not a break where i can just watch movies all day. i still want to work but idk how the break from academics would look on transcripts. what do you think?

6

You have a medical issue. Work with your guidance counselor and the course instructor to get either complete the missing work and pull the grade up, or to arrange a retroactive drop of the class. Think carefully about not enrolling in the second semester of the class. You may have missed so much that you won’t be able to effectively catch up to where you should be in that class.

Take the year off because you need to get your health togehter. In fact, you should consider taking spring semester off to do that. You could go back to high school next fall.

7

If you’ve applied to those schools, you need to inform them.
I agree with @happmomof1, you have to work with your guidance counselor.
If you can’t change that F, you need to retake the class in night school. If it is not dropped or changed it remains permanently on your record.